September 29, 2002	Sunday	Rajab 21, 1423

NAPLES, Sept 28: The European Commission’s competition chief issued a call on Saturday to antitrust agencies around the world to resist pressures from politicians and big business and decide competition cases on merit.

Mario Monti said his remarks were aimed at every agency, from the oldest to the youngest.

Competition chiefs should seek real, effective and full independence of antitrust decision-making from business pressures and political pressures when they intervene loudly or silently in favour of business interests, Monti told a gathering of competition agencies and regulators.

He warned his colleagues, meeting in a rock-walled room at the ancient Castel dell’Ovo castle on Naples Bay, that their independence is under threat when political authorities seem to equate the good of the country if not of the world with the interests of business, big business in particular.

Others also urged the competition chiefs to advocate for themselves, because they promote the good of their economies and their consumers.

There are active, well-organised lobby groups that make representations against high taxes, high interest rates, the need for trade protection, anti-dumping measures and for industry subsidies, said R. Shyam Khemani of the World Bank in Washington.

However, we do not often observe demands for more competition.

Khemani said the benefits of good competition law are broad, rather than benefiting a narrow group.

US Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy Muris extolled competition policy as more than enforcement it’s a way of organising our economy (and) competes with other regulatory structures, many of which are hostile to free markets.

He said competition policy must be “more aggressive”.

But developing nations at the conference found that analysis incomplete. South Africa argued in a position paper that in developing nations not every decision can or should be based purely on free market principles.

Employment and black economic empowerment represent major societal concerns and national policy objectives, the South African paper said.

It is unthinkable that references to these key concerns could be omitted from the South African antitrust law.

The paper said the South Africans consider the effect on employment and the nation’s exports when they decide whether to permit a merger, consulting trade unions among others.

The South African paper said many other countries in reality ended up considering similar interests while clothing their decisions in the garb of competition analysis.—Reuters